Nurse who stole patient medication could get four years in prison

Feb. 19, 2013

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A March 18 sentencing hearing has been scheduled in federal court for a former St. Cloud Hospital nurse who admitted siphoning pain medication from patient IV bags.

Blake Daniel Zenner pleaded guilty in September to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of six to 12 months.

But the U.S. Attorney’s Office has filed a memo indicating it intends to request a four-year prison sentence for Zenner, citing the pain Zenner caused patients who received less than the prescribed amount of pain medication because of his acts. That memo also cites the medical procedures patients had to endure after contracting infections from the IV bags Zenner tapped.

Zenner’s attorney has countered with a memo in which he asks that Zenner be sentenced to probation rather than prison.

Zenner admitted in his guilty plea he had been stealing the painkiller Dilaudid from November 2010 until March 8, 2011, when he was identified as a suspect.

More than two dozen hospital patients contracted Ochrobactrum anthropi infections, which was traced to the IV bags from which Zenner was taking the painkiller.

Zenner admitted accessing a lockbox at the hospital, siphoning the painkilling medication from the IV bags and putting the bags back after adding saline to make it look like nothing was missing.

Zenner was employed at the hospital since 1994, and the sentencing memo from the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicated he and his wife used the painkillers he took.

“The defendant knowingly risked injury to these patients by the manner in which he stole their pain medication for himself and his wife to use,” that memo said. “As a result of the defendant’s actions, that very risk came to pass, and 25 patients were infected with bacteria. Within 48 hours, six of those patients were in the ICU, three required additional surgery, and one had died.”